The Quarterback DadCast
I’m Casey Jacox, the host of the Quarterback Dadcast. As fathers, we want to help prepare our kids—not only to enter the professional world but to thrive in each stage of their lives. Guests of this show include teachers, coaches, professional athletes, consultants, business owners, authors—and stay-at-home dads. Just like you! They share openly about failure, success, laughter, and even sadness so that we can all learn from each other—as we strive to become the best leaders of our homes! You will learn each week, and I am confident you will leave each episode with actionable tasks that you can apply to your life to become that ultimate Quarterback and leader of your household. Together, we will learn from the successes and failures of dads who are doing their best every day. So, sit back, relax and subscribe now to receive each episode weekly on The Quarterback Dadcast.
The Quarterback DadCast
Inspiring Stories of Family, Finances, and Fitness with Benjamin Mena
A huge shoutout goes to our newest sponsor, Leap Advisory Partners! Also, thank you, Kelli Schutrop, for introducing our latest guest, Benjamin Mena. Benjamin is the Founder and Partner of Select Source Solutions and Host of the Elite Recruiter podcast.
In today's episode, imagine embarking on a journey that begins with marathon training and leads to a romantic wedding in Bordeaux, France. This week on the Quarterback Dadcast, Benjamin shares his extraordinary life story and the joys and hurdles of new parenthood. Benjamin reflects on his relationship and family life, which will resonate deeply with all fathers striving for excellence.
Benjamin's childhood as a military brat paints a vivid picture of resilience and adaptability, influenced by frequent relocations and the unique experiences of having a submariner father. Many of the stories we share during this conversation will highlight the importance of leadership, adaptability, and the powerful impact of a resourceful upbringing. During our conversation, I shared the impact of David Marquette's book "Turn This Ship Around," we explore the profound significance of a leader-leader model in both professional and personal life.
Lastly, financial literacy and emotional intelligence emerge as crucial lessons we aim to impart to our children. Benjamin and I discuss the invaluable life lessons learned from Olympic athletes, emphasizing the importance of working smart, consistent practice and setting a positive example. From personal anecdotes to professional successes, this episode is packed with insights and inspiration, concluding with a heartfelt call to action for dads everywhere to keep striving, improving, and shaping the future of their families. Join us for this engaging and motivational conversation that celebrates the essence of fatherhood.
Please don't forget to leave us a review wherever you consume your podcasts! Please help us get more dads to listen weekly and become the ultimate leader of their homes!
Hi, I'm Riley and I'm Ryder, and this is my dad's show.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, this is Casey Jaycox and welcome to season five. I'm very excited for this episode. I'm also very excited to announce we have a brand new sponsor to the podcast our friends Lauren Jones and Rob Mann over at Leap Advisory Partners. I could not be more excited and thrilled that you're going to be sponsoring this for the next 13 weeks. Let's hear a little bit more about what you guys are doing from Lauren.
Speaker 1:Leap Advisory Partners is proud to sponsor the Quarterback Dadcast. Our first core value is empathy, always, and that's why we're proud to sponsor the Quarterback Dadcast for the most authentic discussions around failure, success, leadership, empathy, leading with empathy. If you're not familiar with Leap Advisory Partners, we are your technology partners to help you build with excellence, change your process and adopt your most important investment. Now let's get to today's episode with Casey Jaycox.
Speaker 2:Well, hey, everybody, it is Casey Jaycox with the Quarterback Dadcast. It's a Monday morning in August 12th. This episode will come out here in a few weeks, but I'm excited for season five to carry on. I'm excited for this change in going from only audio to only video. And our next guest and I were just joking about. How you know, in the wide world of work of coaching, consulting, I tell my clients hey, don't let the start stop you. Yet I was not taking my own advice and I was for some reason telling myself all the reasons. That excuse is not to do video.
Speaker 2:But now you get to see my bald head and my green shirt matching my guest, the one and only Benjamin Mina, who is the managing partner of Select Source Solutions in DC. He is also for nearly four years been the host of the Elite Recruiter podcast, which I was graciously enough to be a guest. Now the roles are flipping. I only met Benjamin through the fantastic Kelly Shutrop, the new mom. Kelly Shutrop shout out to Kelly, and Benjamin also is a UCF grad. But more importantly, we're here to talk to him about Benjamin the dad and how he's working hard to become that ultimate quarterback or leader of his household. So further ado, benjamin. Welcome to the Quarterback Dadcast.
Speaker 4:I'm excited to be here. I'm so grateful that I had you on also on my podcast and you just said something like my podcast has been around for almost four years. I have to go back and double check that. That can't be real. It feels like it just started yesterday.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I rounded up. It was like three years and seven months, but I rounded up so well. We always start out each episode with gratitude. Uh, benjamin, so tell me, what are you most grateful for as a dad today?
Speaker 4:Uh, I, today, I'm super grateful for daycare. There you go. He is amazing, but having a tiny human running around does make it a little harder to work. Let me tell you a little bit about my son. My son Gabriel or Gabe. He's nine months old, full of energy and does not stop moving, which I think he got that from his mom. Yeah, I say constantly but, uh, you know, super grateful for daycare, super grateful for my wife, super grateful for just him being incredibly healthy.
Speaker 2:I'm grateful today for a couple of things. One I'm grateful for like so, my son's going to college here in 11 days and it's it's really getting real. Brother, and I was just talking to a buddy who's his son's going to college tomorrow and I was saying, how are you doing? Like hi, mom, he's like you know, we haven't really thought about it too much and literally, um, I can feel it coming here. I gotta be careful here. I literally, uh, was just thinking like holy shit, it's, I'm going to be walking by his room here in two weeks and he ain't going to be in there. You know, and you, we've worked hard for 18 years and to to hopefully produce a, a good human, and which I think we have, but it's he's gonna go put the, put the skills we taught him to test. But I'm just grateful for the dude he is and, um, he's gonna go play golf in college and you know there's probably a lot of ups, a lot of downs and I just uh, you know, grateful that he's get, gets that opportunity.
Speaker 2:And um, and I'm grateful for, also this past weekend, my son, my daughter, my wife's, on the east coast, she, she gets back Wednesday, but we you're playing the game categories? I have not, but I've heard it's like this old school, like like eighties game or thing, maybe nineties Um, and it's funny with one game we don't play very often but when we do it's like so fun, like you roll a dice and like it's um, but it minute timer. So it's sometimes like when I get stumped, I'll, I'll make up the most random weird shit, like it's like dude, that's not a word, and I'll be like yeah, it is. And so then they freaking ask siri and they're like dad, you're freaking full of shit, didn't do us. We had a lot of good times and laughing, so I was. I'm grateful for that one-on-one time with my kids I had with um, but anyway I could I keep talking. This is about you.
Speaker 4:Wait, hold on a second. I'm going to have to worry about, like Siri, answering questions and be like this is the way the world works, son, and all of a sudden he's going to be like hey, siri, check this out.
Speaker 2:Well, that well, and even to, you're also going to worry about. So my, my daughter's, no, my my son's girlfriend's sister, no, sorry that, my, my, my sorry, I get this back my, my daughter's sisters, my daughter's friend's sister, I said it. My daughter's friend's sister. She asked Alexa, hey, alexa, is the tooth fairy real? And Alexa aired them out Like he said, no, it's a fictional character.
Speaker 4:Like come on, alexa, let's go help, don't be throwing us parents under under the bus, like give us some time to make the tooth fairy worth something. Oh man, he gave us nine months. Right now I can't even imagine how alexa suri, open ai, is going to be by the time he's able to talk to him seriously.
Speaker 2:Well, I saw the stat yesterday on tv um, um, when was it? I can't remember what TV show I was watching on a sporting event, but they said, like you know, eight, 15, 18 years ago, like Hulu, netflix, prime minute, and then that existed. Gas was a certain this, you know, all these things were different, but like, yeah, in 10, 15 years, what's it going to? I mean, what's it gonna? I mean that wall behind you is gonna be like, you know, I'm gonna hit a button. It's gonna like flip around and turn. All of a sudden you're on the spaceship, going to uranus or something. Um, okay, so you briefly mentioned the g-man, gabriel. Yeah, but like, talk a little bit about, um, maybe tell me how, how you and your wife met and then talk about, um, uh, what's what? You know, the young, ripe old age of nine months. But what's Gabe? If there's anything he's kind of excited about so far, what is it?
Speaker 4:So which one do you want me to start off, with me and my wife, or on Gabe?
Speaker 2:Either one.
Speaker 4:So we'll go into the story of me and my wife so many years ago, a galaxy far, far away, aka Tampa, florida. I actually lived in Tampa, moved to Tampa from Orlando and just I was everywhere in Tampa. Like you know, I was a recruiter. During the day, outside of recruiting, I was putting on running events. You know, I put together the Tampa corporate 5k on top of other charity events. So I was just like all over the running community and fast forward. Like after three years of doing this, I go to a running event that I just got done, hosting like a thousand person. Like a thousand, over a thousand people showed up to an event I hosted.
Speaker 4:So went to a running event and all of a sudden a girl sits next to me and she's like oh yeah, I've been in the running community for four years and I'm like who? Who are you? Like, literally, I was just like who are you? I know everybody. And then she's like I don't know who you are. And then I was like kind of like taking it back and I'm like wait, I've been like showing up to every single event, week after week, promoting events, doing this, getting to know everybody. I'm like how do you ever hear my podcast. I'm way typically more on the humble side of the house, but I was just like kind of blown away. So we started chatting a bit this and that she's like I'm training for my first marathon. I was like oh, that's awesome, yeah, that's amazing. And I'm like you know what marathon is it? And she's like you know, it's up at the Ohio State, the Ohio State, one of those schools or somewhere up there. And she was like I'm running with my friend.
Speaker 4:And literally the next thing I said was your friend will never make it to the start line. Fast forward to the race which I ended up taking care of her dog while she was up there. Her friend never made it to the start line. The only reason why I actually knew this is because typically a first-time marathoner, there's like all these numbers behind it 33% of the people that actually set up for the race don't even make it to the start line. So if she's super determined to do that and her friend wasn't even at a running event I was just like I've seen these numbers before. I'm like your friend isn't going to make it. So that's how we initially hit it off, and I think it was like the second time I ran into her I was like, hey, I'm moving to dc in about a year. Yeah, that's where government contracting is. You know, I want to go grow that space. I was like, cool, nice to meet you and then I'll, I'll find you a boyfriend. I have plenty of friends that I can hook you up with and fast forward.
Speaker 4:Uh, we, we moved to the dc metro and got married over in Bordeaux, france. Oh, wow, oui, oui, oui, oui. The wine budget goes so much farther there than it does in the US. I'll just say that. But we actually love France. We actually just took Gabe to France around the five-month mark, so he's already been an international traveler. We were over there for about two weeks but if for anybody listening that is a dad or looking at getting married or any of that stuff, we got married in france for about a quarter of the price of getting married in the us. Like we rented a mansion in downtown bordeaux we had like a oh my god, just shy of michelin star dinner for a fraction of what it would be in the US. Yeah, it was. It was awesome.
Speaker 4:I highly recommend like destination weddings are the way to go, but, uh, you know, fast forward, um, you know, I'm sure there's a. You know, probably not going to talk about this too much, but getting to the point of having a kid for many people can be hard. Like we had our challenges, we had our struggles, you know. We actually, you know, after a few different times of losing a pregnancy, we decided to take Alyssa. We actually scheduled her birthday trip back to Bordeaux so she'd go drink all the wine. We found out the day that we landed in Bordeaux she was like I'm not feeling good, I need to go get a pregnancy test. So we found out, while we're in a special place for us, that, uh, you know, she was pregnant with Gabriel and you know, absolutely amazing.
Speaker 4:We're super excited she forced me to drink all the wine that she was supposed to drink that week.
Speaker 2:What a team player.
Speaker 4:What did you say?
Speaker 2:I said what a team player.
Speaker 4:You know I'm trying, I'm trying. You know you've got these grand crew seeing the millions for pennies on the dollar compared to the US. It was tough that week just trying to make sure that she was living vicariously through me for the while.
Speaker 4:But fast forward. Gabe was actually born a month early, was in the NICU, really just absolutely incredible. But you don't realize how hard the process of having a kid really is until you go through it. You hear all these like things on TikTok and Instagram. Everything's so magical, you know, everything's so easy and you know it was. You know another story for another day. But it was even rough. Just the day of they were measuring liters of blood Like it was bad, but I, you know, joke around with my wife. Gabe is super healthy. Gabe is super energetic. I was like you went through all the trouble so he's enjoyed the easy life now.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 4:But Gabe is just absolutely amazing. He's a kid that loves always being in motion On the weekends. I typically go running five miles on Saturday, five miles on Saturday, five miles on Sunday with him, and he's just, he's in his running store just happy as can be. The only challenge of that is like once we get back, he just wants to be in motion the rest of the day, and so he is like hands on everything. And now that he's actually just started moving and just started crawling last weekend, he is in motion nonstop, which is awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, moving, and just started crawling last weekend. He is in motion non-stop, which is awesome. Yeah, it's. Um, I was joking my kids recently you made me think of this. Um, I said, you know my one of my favorite things about you guys when you were young, and they're like what, dad, I go nap time because dad reset it was like an hour and a half, two hours hours. Okay, I get my. Okay, good, I can go brush my teeth. Oh, yeah, I haven't showered in a day. I need to go get that. You know, just cause they're they're, they're bit. And when, once they start walking and running, oh, dude it. But it's the best.
Speaker 2:And every cliche you're going to hear is true. Like I'm, I have a kid going off college, going off to college, I'm junior high school, my daughter's junior high school. I remember the neighbor who but lily at exactly your state of parenthood when she said I mean, I have been a baby bjorn and she's like it's gonna go fast. And I was like, lady, what can I just like enjoy this. That was yesterday, dude, I literally feel like yesterday. So, um, well, cool story. Uh, I don't.
Speaker 2:I think you're the first person on the quarterback dad cast that said they got married in France, which is fantastic. Actually, if you ever go back being in the recruiting industry, there's a place called Sergeant Recruiters I think it's still there on the Isle of St Louis behind the Notre Dame. Okay, fantastic, at least. I went there almost 20 something years ago. My buddy, dan Black shout out to Dan he found this place and it was like this like medieval feel where it was like all you can eat, all you can drink, for like 30 bucks or something American, something crazy good deal, and they would. The stick was like they'd walk up to the table and they'd just like throw the vegetables at you and at you Like you guys figured out like wait what They'd walk up, they'd have like a big thing of meat, throw it down. You guys cut the shit for yourself, we're like.
Speaker 4:But it was all like this sarcastic medieval feel and we had such a good time and so, sergeant recruit that there's there's so many good places over there. And I just also love sometimes the way that the french interact with americans and the second they realize you're an american. They're like why? Why are you here always in paris? Once you get out of paris, everybody loves you very cool, um.
Speaker 2:okay, well, I always like asking dads to go back in time, a little flex capacitor from back the future right there and um, take me back to what was life like for for Ben Benjamin growing up and talk about the impact that your parents had on you Now that you're a dad man, the impact that.
Speaker 4:So, looking at me growing up, my background is I was a military brat, so my dad was in the U S Navy, he was a submariner, so he was gone three months in three months out, three months in three months out. And you know one of the things you know when you're a kid and having to move constantly, everybody that you knew also moved constantly. So there was no foundation of friendship. So there was no foundation of friendship. There was no foundation of, you know, places that you lived and like no place that where people talk about growing roots and growing a network. But one of the things that you, as a military kid, you're forced to learn is how to grow up fast and really just how to swim fast, and I'm so grateful for that. You know, wasn't then every time we had to go to a new school and wasn't then like every time we had to make a move across the country because there was no choice.
Speaker 4:The government told you to do it or you could arrest it, but it was the I'm looking back now as an adult, or even in college, you could drop a military brat anywhere, in any situation, and they could just be like, oh cool, let's go, let's have fun, let's talk, let's, let's do whatever. You could drop a military brat anywhere, in any situation and they could just be like, oh cool, let's go, let's have fun, let's talk, let's do whatever we need to do to get ahead. So it was a combination of that and I was always so proud of my dad for what he was doing to serve in the country. You know those kids running around with the USA flags, American flags, like you just knew that your dad was part of something bigger. He was part of something greater and he was on a mission that was bigger than just himself.
Speaker 4:You know the mission back then was to, you know, against the bad guys over in a foreign country. But it was just, you know, knowing like I remember some of those times where my dad came home from you know being in the ocean for months on end and not being able to talk to him and you just like you're standing on the dock or standing, like you know, outside the base and just like waiting for the ship to come in and waiting for your dad to come in. So I mean those are just absolutely incredible experiences that I had growing up. That you know I don't think somebody that lived in one place their entire life would ever get to even imagine or feel or embrace. So you know what was? I looked at it as a liability, many times turned into such an incredible asset that I can always be grateful for.
Speaker 2:How tell me what your mom did?
Speaker 4:So my mom was a. She was a stay-at-home mom the first few years and if it wasn't for her and like some of the things that she did, like she like, if there was an event happening in Charleston, south Carolina, for kids, I was there. She was taking us everywhere, getting us into as many classes that we could do science classes, this class Somehow she found a way to do all this without not having that much money, so absolutely resourceful. And from there she spent some time as a teacher, working as a paralegal, all sorts of different things. So she really just had it hard but also made the best of it for us, for me and my sister growing up.
Speaker 2:Wow. And your sister, younger or older?
Speaker 4:She is younger, she's actually in Tampa, florida, also Very cool. So she followed me down to Tampa and then I left and she never left.
Speaker 2:How many different places did you live so?
Speaker 4:I have overall was born in the Virginia beach area Charleston, south Carolina, seattle, out by Seattle, washington, cocoa beach, florida, orlando, florida, jacksonville, florida, tampa, florida, arlington, virginia and now Richmond Virginia.
Speaker 2:Wow, so I'm in Seattle, so you spent time on my roots a little bit oh yeah, I was over on the other side, bremerton.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, and that's big Naval area, so it's ironic. I just finished a book about submarines. Really, yeah, it's a great book. It's called Turn that Ship Around by a guy named David Marquette, and it's a great leadership book on how he talks about a leader-leader model versus a leader-follower model, which so speaks to me as the work I do in consulting and coaching and also work as a dad, cause I'm big into curiosity, and leader to leader is really that curiosity drives it where you get people to kind of think for themselves, think on their, think on your feet. He talks about a thing called deliberate action, but he was stationed in Hawaii and if you're, if you're into, like you know, leadership and and obviously submarine cause your pops did that like it might be a good book to check out.
Speaker 4:So I I gotta tell you two submarine stories real quick. So back in the day the military used to have this thing called tiger cruises where young boys would actually get to go on a submarine for the weekend. So we'd, you know, we'd get dropped off at one location. We'd go with a full weekend deployment, come, come back at the end of the weekend, get dropped back off with our family or our mom. But two of the things that happened on there were just absolutely crazy.
Speaker 4:So one of the times when you think of an old, rusty sailor, this guy was what you can imagine of somebody that's been in the Navy for 25 years and he has embraced every single thing and he be a pirate if, like pirates were a thing today. So on these tiger cruisers we're supposed to do like all these things to get a badge. He actually one of the times he's like you're supposed to check out these missile tubes. So he actually grabbed me by like little scrawny me by the back of my shorts, hung me down this missile tube. That's like a two, three story drop. And he's like this is where I lost my finger. It's just like about ready to drop me and I'm like absolutely freaking out. But you know, part of it was trying to try to. You know, yeah, check out these missile tubes and what.
Speaker 4:What your dad does another time was one of the things that they do on the subs was these emergency dives and emergency surfaces. So, like you know, quick, like five degree, like see how that is, 10 degrees, see how that is. And once we hit I don't remember the exact degree level, but they all the sailors, had me sliding down the missile compartments kind of like, almost like a slide, as we do these dives and surfaces. One of the time I slid so far and so fast I hit the wall, went flying up and I just missed the bolt that went, with this gigantic bolt sticking out like this far, and it was just like great way to. You know, us Navy almost made the news. Kid gets impaled by Tiger Cruz during the emergency dives.
Speaker 2:Holy cow. So when I was reading that book, I just I could not. I was trying to like visualize what was it like to be on the submarine and not getting claustrophobic so like when you, when you first did it for the first time, did you ever feel like?
Speaker 4:I mean, as a kid you probably like there's so much space, like the, the, you know the doors are so high, like there's there's so much space. When you're a kid but like looking back now, like how tall I am, I'd be like sitting there going underneath like every little door intersection and I see that, but it's. I mean, think of these things. They're like multi stories, big. It's not like you're in a small box, like these are. You know, multiple levels, multiple stories. It's almost like you're on in a gigantic townhouse or a gigantic building that's under the water.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow, I can't even imagine that. What tell me, what did your dad do in the, in the military, for the submarine?
Speaker 4:He drank coffee all day.
Speaker 2:I'm sure he did more than that.
Speaker 4:I, that's what he told me he did for 24 years. He was like I'm officially a coffee drinker.
Speaker 2:Is it like because of the secret clearance he couldn't tell you?
Speaker 4:I mean he did have a secret clearance, but it was mostly he was doing electronics work, but the coffee story always just played so much better. And Dion was a war story. He told me constantly that I'd never gotten to a point about 10 years after I graduated from college. Just because you know you're a kid, you hear these stories all day. It was like you know, we were tracking the Russians in the middle of the North Atlantic. The storms were so bad we were doing 360 degree rolls, but I never spilled a cup of coffee. And like you know, you hear this as a kid. You're like oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Like 10 years later, I was like that's pretty impressive, pops, I almost got that feeling in your stomach when you're on a roller coaster, 360-degree rolls in the ocean. I'm a hard pass on that one.
Speaker 4:They don't actually do that. That's why it never made sense, because once you're under the water, it's actually pretty calm, unless you're doing the emergency dives to the surface or emergency raises or emergency dives.
Speaker 2:Once you're doing the emergency dives to the surface or you know emergency, emergency raises, emergency dives but yeah, once you're under the water it's super calm down there where do you think or how long did it take to get the skill of being able to adapt when you moved as a kid, and how has that skill helped you in life?
Speaker 4:I think high school is where it really clicked. High school is where it really clicked. That that's exactly what I needed to do was to have that adaptive skill, because it really is. It comes down to having a choice Like you choose to be adaptive, you choose to walk into a situation, you choose to fail, you choose to just shut down and shut up.
Speaker 4:And it was a divergent road that I saw in high school, probably after a time where I got arrested a few times and did some things I probably shouldn't have done, where I saw these two paths moving forward, of the friends that were doing this and the friends that were succeeding.
Speaker 4:I had to choose the adaptability and move towards a success plan or I'd be in jail or, from what I saw, other people you know not waking up from drugs and you know getting arrested and doing like all those things.
Speaker 4:So I think it was high school where it really just clicked. But you know, it played really well for me, even in the recruiting world, like after college, where the structure was gone and I had to learn how to adapt to almost the real world. Where, like I think I don't know if I told you on the podcast but like they, like aerotech wanted to get rid of me like after three, around the three-month mark. They're like we hate you, like we're gonna fire you, like you actually suck at recruiting. But it was like learning how to be adaptive in that environment is what helped me succeed, and even with your own business and so many other things in life moving forward. It's like you have an idea and you decide to go run with it. There's no playbook. I mean, there's playbooks, there's coaches, there's all these things that you can have, but at the same time you have to figure out how to be adaptive enough to go get the job done yourself.
Speaker 2:Why did you suck?
Speaker 4:I couldn't make a placement, I didn't know how to work, I didn't understand, I think up until that time, what a recruiter actually did. I had to really reframe my thoughts. But yeah they actually sat me down and they're like you haven't made a placement. You suck at recruiting. The only reason why they're not getting rid of you is because you're just putting in the work Like you're exceeding the work levels of what we're telling you to do. You just don't know what the fuck you're doing.
Speaker 2:Love it.
Speaker 4:And what age were you at do?
Speaker 2:you remember. I think this is like 21, maybe 22, love it, love it. But those are stories. I think that, like, as a dad, you probably end up sharing with gabe and I hope those are stories you share with your team and other younger folks, less experienced folks, that. But I think sometimes when there's younger folks or less experienced folks, they see someone who's having success, like oh, that must be easy, but like I.
Speaker 2:But like I think this is where the power of like I always say humility and vulnerability sharing these stories of where we sucked because we all suck in life, we all struggle, we all have gaps, we all were fighting the fight to get better each and every day. No one's got it all figured out. If they think they do, I don't believe them because we all have areas to get better. But I think when we share stories of struggle, I think those that's where you kind of help, that kind of back to the book I talked about, but by David Marquette. It's like just that you create leaders to lead for themselves, which is back to fatherhood. We want, as dads, we want to create better humans. We want to create critical thinking skills. We want to make them not relying on us so they can go out being sexual successful, so they can hopefully pay for us and assist a living facility.
Speaker 4:Then you know that we we joke about moving to france, just that way that when he has that, he also we. We have the health care too.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I get that yeah, exactly, if you're so, let's, let's stay on this path of of growing up military brat bouncing all the place as you.
Speaker 4:You talk about being adaptive, but tell me a couple other, like core values that your mom and dad taught you that were like these are the must-haves, um, and maybe a story or two how those really set in for you that you, that you will you still use to this day I think one of the biggest things both my parents taught me was just the, the how to work hard, and that was one thing that I a lesson that I got really good at and I don't want to say perfected but it became such a focus that down the road I didn't learn how to work smart, because I knew I had so many times in life where I just ground my way to success. If I could work hard, I could work myself out of any situation. So my dad because of my mom and the support and everything, my dad got out of the Navy, retired from the Navy with two master's degrees hugely influential by the time he got out and because of that, everything that they did, I also got to try a lot of sports.
Speaker 3:And because of that everything that they did.
Speaker 4:I also got to try a lot of sports, and many of them I sucked at Soccer, I sucked at Basketball, I sucked at but I found a sport where I was actually semi-good at and I kind of wish I found it sooner, but it was a sport called running. Picture this I'm in high school. My soccer coach is sitting there just like hey, literally on on the sidelines, is like I'm just not going to put you in today, like you're really not that good at this, but I really want you to go become like a runner. He's like you need to throw all your effort into running. He's like you're good at that, you're not good at the ball. No-transcript. I was probably running about 70 miles a week before college.
Speaker 4:I put my. I put in my workout about six o'clock in the morning, from like eight o'clock all the way to about 10 o'clock. I was working multiple different jobs just to pay the bills, so that way I'd have some sort of money when I go into college. And then from there, once I got to college, I, you know, turned that all off, took some student loans. But, you know, walked onto the college cross country team and it was just like, hey, I'm here, let's go, let's this, I'm off to go join the Marines. And luckily she, you know, let me come on the team.
Speaker 4:And years of hard work and you are a college athlete, so you understand like what it is the 6 am, the 5 am, the going to sleep at a proper time, the 3 pm practice, the, you know. For you the games on Friday nights or on Saturdays. For us it was the cross-country races and the track meets. There were weeks where I was putting in a good 120 miles of running per week, hundreds of miles of biking in the gym four or five times a week. So I knew how to. My parents taught me how to work hard and that has been such a benefit. One of the things I've had to learn over time is also how to work smart. It's not just the hardest worker that wins. It's the hardest worker that has this working, that's working smart is the one that wins the most.
Speaker 2:How did you learn? Is there a story where you were working hard but not smart that really triggered that thought for you?
Speaker 4:I think it was a combination of two things Getting injured in college, when you injure out of a college sport that you spend your entire life, or you spend years of your life working towards just the loss of the identity that you've built up, and then suddenly losing that identity all at once, because if I actually listened to my coach I wouldn't have injured out. I thought I could outwork my coach's advice. I thought I could outwork whatever she gave me. I just want to put 10 or 20% more in. And the problem was I wasn't working smart and my body just couldn't handle it. So I literally, like without the, the workout and the grinding, broke my own body down to the place where I could like. You know, I was walking on campus and like two boots and I getting cortisol shots just to make it on race day.
Speaker 2:Hmm, what was your injury?
Speaker 4:Plantar fasciitis. On on both feet.
Speaker 2:That's I do. That is the worst. I hate plantar fasciitis on both feet. That's I do. That is the worst. I hate pancreatitis it is. Yeah you, you wear the wrong shoes or flip flops or, you know, overuse. Once you get it, it's like you wake up that first step, like, oh, here it's back, and just I know the feeling bro.
Speaker 4:I mean, it was like every day of my life in college sports and finally I just hit the point where, like, I sat down with my coach, I'm like I don't know if I could do this. And, you know, I also realized that running wasn't going to pay the bills. I actually started talking to professional runners and all that stuff. And this was before the days of social media. This was was before the days where there's all this money in college athletes, that if you have a social media presence. I was just like, huh, you're 35 and you're a professional runner and you're, you have seven roommates. Don't know if I want that life anymore, but it was just the you know, after making that decision and sitting down with my coach and my coach actually even gave me the option to almost like red shirt to keep my scholarship, and she was just like you know, just be on the team, we'd love to have you. Like you work hard, you cheer everybody on I was like I actually told her.
Speaker 4:I was like, hey, if I'm leaving the team, I need to give up my scholarship so that way another athlete can have it wow you know, just fast forward like I made that decision, I didn't realize the loss of identity and that kind of stuff and that's's a whole nother reframe.
Speaker 4:That a lot of professionals I think have challenges with is their entire work and what they do for a decade or two decades is the identity of what they become. And so often we see that with layoffs where a decision that had no impact on them they were the best person in the office, they were the highest producer, but somebody on the top of the line looked at an Excel spreadsheet, made a note, changed the number and that 10 to 20 years is gone, that identity is gone. What they've built themselves up for so long just magically disappeared. That was one learning lesson that I took to heart pretty early. And then the second is just like in the recruiting business, there are so many things that you can do in the recruiting world that you can work hard and not make a single dime. There's so many things that you can focus on in the recruiting space where if I do this, this and this, but I'm not focusing on X, Y, Z, this over here, this over here and this over here to complete the whole picture, you can stay broke.
Speaker 2:So true. Well, that spoke to me, man, because I you know, as you might recall, I spent 20 years at K-Force and right guy, right time, right place, and when I left they didn't go out of business. It's a miracle. I was the number one guy for 10 straight years. How did that happen, guys? They couldn't survive without me.
Speaker 2:Weird, we're all replaceable and I think the fact that you've already learned that early as a dad, as an executive, as ever, the job title you have in life, I think in other dads that once it's again, it's not being negative dads, it's just being honest with yourself and having humility that we all are replaceable and businesses will go on.
Speaker 2:I think, once you come to peace with that, it doesn't mean you don't aren't grateful for the success, the experience, the lessons learned, but you don't tie yourself to an identity because in the end, like you know, to me my, my, my identity is am I a good person? Am I a dad? Am I a good husband? Am I a good friend? Do I, do I follow up? Do I what? What I say am I going to do? Do I do it? Do I show up on time? Am I a good listener? Do I ask? I mean those things, not because in the end, businesses come and go and you know think about in sports to your point, like how many pro athletes get tied up to. But that's why I love to see, you know, athletes reinvent themselves and whether it's becoming a financial advisor or getting into insurance or speaking or an author or whatever it may be Like, those are the things that are really inspiring.
Speaker 4:I mean like so, at the time of the recording, the Olympics just finished yesterday and the one of the things about the Olympics that I just I love so much is the story. After the stories, there are 10, there are 10,500 athletes that are competing against. I think it's like for 349 different gold medals, 10,500 athletes that are competing against. I think it's like for 349 different gold medals, 10,000 athletes, but before that. So you have the 349 gold medals, you have the silver medals and you have the bronze medals, but you have a buck of 10,000 athletes here, but how many athletes didn't get there? How many athletes have spent their entire lives, decade or more, just trying to get to the Olympics and they had a bad day?
Speaker 3:Somebody else was just better than them.
Speaker 4:They got injured. And what I love after the Olympics is the story after the story. Hey, even if you got the gold medal, what are you going to do next? You are last place of that race. You are last place on the road race in the Olympics. What are you going to do next?
Speaker 2:Do you go deeper in your sport, do you reinvent yourself, do you start a brand new story? Yeah, oh, it's good man. How about Steph Curry? By the way, he's a beast, oh my God, seeing him go nuts in the Olympics was so. I mean, I I caught the last five minutes of that game this past weekend and, um, we're big. We're not an NBA family because we don't have an NBA team in Seattle anymore, but I'm hoping to re-engage the NBA. But, like my daughter's a big high school basketball player, um, she loves hoop and and so I caught the part of that game and I was like, well, I just saw him make those four threes and the last three minutes was unbelievable.
Speaker 4:I mean absolutely crazy, but it's also like one of the things that you also, that I also love. Another story about the Olympics is seeing the work that goes into these people, these people's lives, for that five minutes. How many hours were they by themselves? How many hours were they with coaches? How many hours have they been in the gym? How many hours were they by themselves? How many hours were they with coaches? How many hours have they been in the gym? How many hours have they been with physical therapists? You know all those, all the every single one of those athletes, and you know everybody has their story. Bad days, injuries, stuff happens with so many people. But all those quiet moments where they're just by themselves putting in the work, making those decisions for the opportunity to try to get that gold medal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, man, I love what you just said there because I mean that's, whether it's in business or sports or like, every day we have a choice. Every minute you have a choice. Every second you have a choice to get better, get worse. No one stays the same. Some people might say that's corny. I think about life like that. I think about and I've like, for example, my daughter. I saw a video that Steph Curry did.
Speaker 2:He does form shooting Like. So people don't know form shooting. You're literally taking a ball one hand and you're making a two footer. So she has to make five from two feet from the left side of the hoop, five from the center of the hoop, five from the right side of the hoop and she has to make five in a row from each spot before she goes next spot. And we do that before we shoot anything and I'm hopeful now that's a habit for her, so she'll got to do it by herself, but I'm hopeful that when she's a mom in business or a teacher or whatever she wants to do, like, she'll remember those moments when my dad rebounded for me or with my son making, ending with a make.
Speaker 2:You know, like on the golf course. You know it's like got to end with a make and end with something positive before you leave. You know, hopefully that might he'll remember that, like in business, maybe he's gets into sales. I got, I got to end with one positive phone call. I got to end with one good meeting with my internal teammate. Or send on, you know, show some appreciation for somebody, whatever it may be.
Speaker 2:But like you hope, these lessons and as Gabriel gets older, you know you'll, he'll, he's watching, bro. They are watching. You don't realize it at a younger at least I didn't as a younger parent but they are watching and they are more as taught by watching than what we speak. And so how you treat your wife, how you treat people around you, how you, when, when he's crying and freaking out, are you going to freak out with him or do you stay calm, like all these, all these moments are like they're watching and so like, if there's a younger dad or an older dad, as you're reflecting, as we're talking through this stuff, like you know, the story isn't written yet you can go, change the story, change the narrative, be the person you want to be, be the dad you want to be, be the husband you want to be it's. It goes back to what you said earlier being adaptive, but having a choice. You know, um, as your wife said, go ahead. I was going to say like I'm.
Speaker 4:he's nine months and I'm just blown away by how much he like tries to copy or like how much he already knows. So, like I we I try to buy my wife flowers like every single week, and most of the time I actually take Gabe with me to go get the flowers. The second, the flowers are in the cart. He just gets so excited Like I can put other things in the cart, like you know, food and stuff and just like whatever.
Speaker 2:but once to the flowers, like he's, just like yay so good back to your question though yeah that's, I mean that's, but like what, what a cool experience that he's now when he, you know, has his life partner. He'll remember myself. This is what we do, we get. We get our wife flowers, we get a girlfriend flowers. This is what my dad taught me like and I bet he'll remember that type of stuff, you know hi, this is Kathy Orton.
Speaker 3:I'm the director of talent management at CoWorks staffing services. Coworks is one of the largest staffing firms in the United States, with operations in all 50 states, over 60,000 temporary field talent. We are devoted to the success and growth of our employees and our clients. We are celebrating our 50th anniversary this year and are proud to have a legacy of treating people the right way, doing the right thing, supporting our communities and putting field talent first. Our team places candidates in administrative light, industrial, call center, distribution, third-party logistic positions with additional opportunities through our executive search, creative staffing and luxury, beauty and fragrance divisions.
Speaker 3:We had the pleasure of having Casey Jaycox deliver a keynote presentation and training workshop to our sales team this year and I have to tell you it was exceptional. Casey is funny, he is engaging and he is approachable. What sets Casey apart is that he really walks the walk. He lives what he teaches. He spent time with us outside of the workshop, really taking the time to get to know our people. He shared information about his personal life, about his family, creating the foundation for authentic relationships, one of the core elements of the strategy he teaches. Casey left our teams feeling motivated, energized and armed with the actionable tools to transform their sales performance. I cannot recommend Casey enough to any or any organization looking to grow and unlock their full potential. If you want to learn more about Cowork Staffing, please visit our website at CoworkStaffingcom. Now let's get back to the podcast.
Speaker 2:I guess. So as you is your wife Alyssa? Did I hear that earlier? Alyssa? Yeah, okay, alyssa, so as you, um, I love nicknames, so I'm I'm already calling him the G man, as the G man's getting older. Uh, as you think about like lessons she's learned from her parents, lessons you've learned teach him that are going to help him be successful in life.
Speaker 4:You know, I think one of the biggest things that we're already starting to teach is, like you know, I sit there and talk with him about economics and finances and he's only nine months Like he actually has his own investment account that's going to flip over to him when he's 18. You know, the goal is to leave him. I think one of the biggest things leave him financially smart in things that I didn't learn until I hit my 30s.
Speaker 4:Smart. If I can give him a launching pad whether lessons learned, smart money he could chase some of the things that he wants to chase, rather than chase out some of the things out of necessity.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I think there's some high schools are getting better at bringing financial literacy back into the education class and when I was back in the eighties and nineties, we had this thing called home ec where we learned finance type stuff. My wife is really really good at like finance and balancing a checkbook and I think those are skills that we as parents really should. If you're not doing that, like what Benjamin just talked about, like focus on those life skills, because it's really where you can help them. What about? Maybe that's like. What about from an EQ perspective, like an emotional intelligence perspective? What are values or what are thoughts or skills you want to see Gabriel get good at?
Speaker 4:I want him to get good at being nice but strong, being kind but firm.
Speaker 2:Tell me what you mean by that.
Speaker 4:You know, I think it was like growing.
Speaker 4:Tell me what you mean by that. You know, I think it was like growing. One of the things when you're growing up and you have to learn how to be adaptable is also you learn how to you know, almost sometimes be a people pleaser, but also you also learn to like you. Really, I think I was too nice growing up and that was one of the things that really just it played well, but it didn't play well where it needed to play well, even in the recruiting. That was one of my problems, like why I sucked at recruiting. I was just too nice. I was like everybody doesn't. It's our job to get, for everybody to get jobs from us, right? No, it's our job to. Actually we have a client to make a placement with them. We don't get people jobs. We help people. We help companies find people. And it was just the. You get on the phone and you start talking everybody. I'm having an amazing conversation with this candidate.
Speaker 4:Does the candidate fit the job? I think so. So I think I want him to be nice, be kind, but also understand that kind and nice you don't need to be a pushover, but you can still make things happen and be a good person.
Speaker 2:Love it, love it. One question that I like and I don't know if you're two in your early phases of fatherhood, but I'll still ask it anyways is in your nine months as your dad life, your dad resume still hasn't fully been written yet, but I would say you're in the rookie year. I like to ask dads what's an area of your dad game that maybe you don't like, where it's at right now that you might realize it could be a gap, that you're working hard to that. You know you don't like it, but hey, today you're going to commit. Hey, you know what You're right. This is something I suck at and but I'm going to make a decision to become better. And let me leave my witness a little bit. Like.
Speaker 2:One of my gaps that I get to talk about on 267 episodes is patience. As a competitive dude, sometimes my patience gets the best of me, but I would think through this podcasting journey it's it's gotten way better. And even when my when my um patients does get the best of me, I quickly realized no one likes that side of Casey. Don't be a douche. Go apologize to your kids, go apologize to your wife. So that's me. But how about you, ben, tell me, tell me near your dad game that maybe you don't, you don't like where it's at, if there are an area that you really want to try to get better?
Speaker 4:I kept on always saying to myself, before he got here, that I was going to spend time reading with him, reading, reading with him, spending time sitting down reading with him, and that's something I think I've only done twice.
Speaker 3:You know there's a great answer.
Speaker 4:You know it's and, yeah, I, I was like so looking forward to it. And then you know, once you're a dad, like there's so many other things that you have to do and you need to do and you should be doing that. You know the idea of reading with him got put on the back burner. Um, I do enjoy the like I I take him all over the place like he's like my little buddy when he's, when he's not napping and when he's not sleeping. So like the amount of time I spend with him is awesome. Like he probably is outside doing things more than most other babies his age.
Speaker 4:I realize that most dads out there, even with little ones, aren't out there running with them and picking them, shopping and doing all this stuff. Most of the time when you're at the store guess who you see You're supposed to see a mom At halftime. I'm like Melissa, take a break, I got him, we're going to the store, we're going to go shopping, we're going to go this, we're going to go for a run. So, um, but yeah, just sitting down quietly and reading and slowing down is something that I always said that I wanted to do, that I need to actually do more of.
Speaker 2:You are not only are the first podcast guest to get married in France talk about that but you're also the first person to talk about the gap being reading. So I feel like I should give you like I don't have a t-shirt or maybe I'll give you a air high five over the, the interwebs, but what a great one you know the gift of re. I love reading my kids. I always give them a hard time Like can you guys even read? We're a sarcastic family. Like you have a funny dad, but like they don't. They read a little bit for school, but like I, I'm hopeful that as I get older they'll enjoy reading because it's a constant way to learn and I think learning is fun when you find something that kind of ignites your passion.
Speaker 4:So I think it's a great answer and I I mean you've, I've seen, I've seen the data and I and now I know why, like so many people, why it's so hard now that I'm living through it, but this data of kids that are around books, constantly around books, reading or listening to or seeing their parents read there is such a difference when they get to that 20, 30 and 40 year mark. Like, the data is there and now I'm seeing, like why most parents, including myself, aren't spending enough time there.
Speaker 2:So good answer, all right, man, like why most parents, including myself, aren't spending enough time there. So Good answer, all right, man. Well, let's, I want to. So we've talked, we've touched on recruiting a little bit, we touched on the podcast a little bit, but let's, let's get into some detail. If people have no idea who, who the hell selects source solutions and government contracting, and let's, let's make sure people truly understand what, what Benjamin's about, what your company's about, and how can they find out more about what you guys are doing.
Speaker 4:So we are behind the scenes. The company is myself and my wife. We're both business partners. We do recruiting in the government contracting space so we come on and help companies after they win work, or even consult for companies trying to win some work with the federal government, and we just come and help them fill the positions behind the scenes. So government contracting is a multi, multi, multi, multi, multi-billion dollar industry and, at the end of the day, all government contracting is very complex, staffing companies that are required to do so much more requirements with the federal government just to make it happen. So that's why most people stay out of it.
Speaker 4:So you know companies win this work. They have trouble filling it up. We come behind the scenes and get it filled and we've had, I think, a combination of over both our careers, have filled over a billion dollars worth of government contracts Ourselves. So that's us during the day. That's the main focus. You know most people have learned about me from a podcast that I have called the Elite Recruiter Podcast. Actually, I had Casey on there as an awesome guest and man, it's powerful. If you were in the recruiting space, you have to go back and listen to that episode. It was so good that I actually took notes, replayed it multiple times and I'm like you mind if I share one of my favorite pieces of advice that you gave me.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 4:So one of the questions I asked, casey, was you have a lot of people in the recruiting world, in the business world, asking you for advice. Tons of people are asking questions. What's the one question that you wish people would actually ask you about? And he's like it almost kind of goes with the conversation that we had earlier about, like you know, the stuff that goes on behind the scenes. I went he literally just looked in the camera and said I wish people would ask me how much I practice, how much work goes on behind the scenes. All my competitors, they're practicing live on that first phone call. I've been practicing all morning on the way to work in the car. I've been practicing my scripts in and out in the evenings after I'm done. I wish people saw how much I practice to have the success that I'm having today.
Speaker 2:I wish people saw how much I practice to have the success that I'm having today. Yeah, it's, uh, it's. I appreciate you saying that, man. Um, it's not a uh, it's not a skill that people like to do, because it's it's it's choice. Back to your word earlier it's, it takes a choice to want to do the little things, the hard work, the practice behind the scenes. Um, and you know whether it's a choice to go get flowers, it's a. It's a choice to take him Gabriel for a run, it's such a. You know all these things. So, um, practice is a skill that I work on all the time.
Speaker 2:So, to this day, even like, for example, before I go on and do a keynote for company or sales organization, I'll come into my office and I'll practice and I'll tell my kids I'm going to practice a little strategic there to make sure they know that, hey, I'm asking you to practice because these are things I'm going to do. The same thing I'm walking the walk. I love when I'm finishing my workout in the morning and my kids like this morning, ryder, my son, I was finishing I go buddy. One last thing and I can talk to you. He sees that I'm working my ass off. Start the day you know. So, um, what is there a type of? Back to your, your business, the government contracting? Is there a type of, uh, skill or technology or role that people might, if they're intrigued, they want to learn more that I can make sure that they, we could connect you to them. These type of people, what type of role?
Speaker 4:We do a lot of stuff like within digital transformation, like in the cloud space, moving like helping move government organizations over to AWS. We're getting involved in a little more with AI. I know AI is super hot in the corporate world. The government is always five years behind, but they're right now seeing all the excitement and getting involved in AI too, and we're also looking at moving a little more into the executive search side of government contracting too. So that's one thing that we've started repositioning our business for. Now that we have a tiny human, we have to, you know, make changes to live the life that we want to live, to help raise him the way that we want to raise him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very cool. And where can people find the podcast?
Speaker 4:So you can find the elite recruiter podcast on Spotify. You can find it on Apple podcasts, you can. I just now started using YouTube. I know me and Casey we're having a conversation about that. I'm probably like 100 episodes behind. I was so afraid of video editing that I would only do it on the audio podcast, like the major platforms. But yeah, definitely check it out If you want to learn more about recruiting, you want to hear the stories of how recruiters are succeeding. You want to hear the stories of recruiters that are just being real and like, hey, this sucks, but this is how I learned how to deal with it and this is how I learned to win. That's what the elite recruiter podcast is.
Speaker 2:Love it. Well, we should give some love to your, your friend and colleague.
Speaker 4:my new friend and colleague, how are we able to do our video work? I mean, Ishmit is freaking awesome when it comes to video stuff.
Speaker 2:There we go, our boy Ishmid.
Speaker 4:If you actually like before I started working with him, like trying to do like these little video cuts, like then this is before some of these like AI tools that do like a decent, an okay job. I was spending like 10 hours a week and I'm like I still got to recruit, I still got to do this. I still have a podcast interview In the evenings. I'm like click, click, click, click, click. Now there's pros out there that can do it for you.
Speaker 2:Yep, and we found him. I found him thanks to you. So, ishmint, thanks, brother, appreciate what you're doing. All right, it's now time to go into actually. Before we go lightning round, I want to ask one last question. If you were to summarize everything we've talked about today, that a dad or someone might, who else may not be a dad, but someone listening, that can take from our episode to to, maybe, you know, take two or three actionable nuggets of wisdom. They can say, hey, I learned these two or three things from, from Benjamin Casey that I'm going to use in my own life to become a better dad, better husband, better friend. Tell me what comes to mind.
Speaker 4:First thing that comes to mind is start talking with your kid, no matter how old they are, about finances. The conversation of finances and being scared of that conversation will have an impact on your kid for the next 40 years. You can literally change your kid's future by having those conversations to try to teach them finances off correctly. Secondly, think about your identity. Casey gave a good breakdown of his core identity and his core identity isn't his job. His core identity are these core things, that how you make money can plug into those, but it is not the end-all, be-all of who you are. Be all of who you are. And third this is a conversation I had with Casey a while back before the podcast was the work that goes on behind the scenes is and will become, shows who you are as a dad, as a professional, as an athlete.
Speaker 2:You have to put in the work, and you have to sometimes put in the work when you don't want to work. Yep, love it, man. Well, lastly, I'll, I'll, I'll, tag onto what you just said. Like you said, put in the work and you don't want to do it. There's never been a day where I've regretted working out. There's never been a day where I've regretted making one more phone call. There's never been a day where I've regretted working out. There's never been a day where I've regretted making one more phone call. There's never been a day where I've regretted man, that guy's kind of an asshole to me. But you know what. I'm going to be nice. For example, I get my car fixed right now.
Speaker 2:The guy was an absolute tool. This morning. I could match his attitude and be an a-hole right back to him. Or I said you know what? I'm going to smile and kill him with kindness and I hopefully let an hour and a half in a row. He's like God. That was kind of it. Hopefully this is the other guy. He's like man. Maybe it wasn't my best. I'm just like be nice, because being nice will never be replaced by AI. I believe that's why I love being nice. And uh, you can get wrapped up in all these tools out there. But you know, one of the themes you talked about earlier, benjamin, is just being nice, um, but strong, being kind of a firm, but like yeah, those types of things I think are so important to talk about because they're time tested skills that we're always going to be around if we focus on so.
Speaker 4:I mean, you got to think of this, like your parents did what they could possibly do, and your job as a kid is to stand on their shoulders and create the next set of opportunities.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, all right, brother. Well, now it's time to go into what I call the lightning round. This is when I show you the negative hits of taking too many hits not bong hits, but football hits in college. And your job is to answer these questions as quickly as you can. My job is to try to get a giggle out of you. There's the game face. Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Sure, okay, there we go. So, true or false, you're known as the pre-Fontaine of the staffing industry. False, false. I think we should. I've never heard that before. Well, you're pre-Fontaine. You're like the best runner in staffing history.
Speaker 4:I think we Prefontaine. I think of one of the best runners in American history I'd be thinking of, if I was Prefontaine, having multiple $1 million fees. There you go, tell me the last book you read it was Challenger Sale, the Psychology of money, and then relentless. So we'll just say we'll go through a lot on this because I actually finished that for a recruiting book club that I was running.
Speaker 2:There we go. If you were to go on a vacation right now, just you and Alyssa, where are we going?
Speaker 4:France.
Speaker 2:France. Okay, if I was to come to your house for dinner tonight, what would you cook me?
Speaker 4:You want some baby food. Actually we don't know, maybe like a steak.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Maybe a steak. I mean, Gabe eats dinner with us, Like whatever we're having for dinner at nine months he's he's having bits and pieces of it with us.
Speaker 2:Smart man, that's so smart.
Speaker 4:We saw the French do it all the time there's no, but there's no kid menus in France.
Speaker 2:His palate will be much more advanced In your life as a parent. It's easier, it's like we're not a shorter to cook guys this is what's for dinner.
Speaker 4:Eat it or you're not eating. That's what they do over there, so we're adopting some of that over here.
Speaker 2:Love it. If I was to go into your phone right now, what would be the one song? I'd be shocked you listened to.
Speaker 4:Uh, there's. I don't know the name of it, but I have some French lullabies on my phone that play.
Speaker 2:So it'd probably be that there we go. Um, if there was to be a book written about your life, tell me the title Too Stupid to Quit, too Stupid to Quit. Now this book is. France has heard about it, germany, Luxembourg, netherlands, america everybody's hearing about this book. And now Apple's heard about it. Netflix, hulu they're all fighting for it and they want to make a movie out of it. Now you are the casting director, benjamin. I need to know what movie what Hollywood star is going to star Benjamin in? Too stupid to quit?
Speaker 4:I actually don't know any really Hollywood stars at all, so I suck at this one.
Speaker 2:Then pick somebody randomly. Let's go with Brian Reynolds. There we go, there you go. That's a good one.
Speaker 4:He's in a movie right now.
Speaker 2:So there we go. That's a great answer. Okay, and one last question Tell me two words that would describe Alyssa.
Speaker 4:A loving. That's a great answer, okay, and then last question tell me two words that would describe alissa a loving I?
Speaker 2:I'm trying to narrow down to like the last one, like that's a hard question absolutely amazing.
Speaker 4:She's super ambitious, she's an amazing mom, she's like an amazing partner. I I don't know how to narrow down to two.
Speaker 2:Good answer. Well then, so then we're going to call that a tie, because I laughed more at my own jokes than you did, but you violated the rule and you said like 43 words, so we'll call it tied and lighting around. See, I'm not very good at following rules. It's all right. You're adaptive, though. It's your choice.
Speaker 2:Um, man, this has been a blast getting to know you. It's been a blast hearing about your story. Um, a blast hearing about your mindset as a dad, as a business owner, as a podcast host. Um, it's been great just learning about you and I hope that people listening at home will take time to listen to this and take notes like I did. I got a full page of notes. Um, I want to thank our sponsors for all the support. I want to thank all the dads for continuing to learn and listen to each episode we have each week. If you're not subscribing weekly, please subscribe to the episodes. Come right to your phone or device or wherever you consume these podcasts and, if you've not taken time to leave us a review, that would be a huge request, just because it helps further the reach that we can get other dads working hard on their own game to become that ultimate quarterback or leader of their household. But, ben man, it's been a blast spending time with you. Thank you so much and hope to see you soon, man.
Speaker 4:Real quick before you hit stop. I got one thing. If you've made it this far listening to this episode, casey has done over 200 of these 269, I think he's recorded. And if you, if Casey has had an impact on your life with these stories, I want you to send him a message. I want you to share the impact that he's had with you. Shoot him a message, share the impact that he's had, and go out there and keep on fighting.
Speaker 2:Appreciate it, man. Thanks so much for the kind words, thanks for the support, and dads, keep working hard to become that ultimate quarterback leader at home. We'll talk to you guys next week.